Dartmouth Overcomes Early Deficit to Beat St. Lawrence, 3-1

Saturday, January 18

Hanover, N.H.

7 PM

Dartmouth College

10-5-3, 7-3-1

St. Lawrence

3-19-3, 1-12-0

St. Lawrence

Dartmouth

Collin Rutherford.

Photo by: Doug Austin

Dartmouth Overcomes Early Deficit to Beat St. Lawrence, 3-1

1/18/2020 9:17:00 PM | Men's Ice Hockey

Box Score Photo Gallery

Three straight goals give Big Green three straight wins.

By: Pat Salvas

HANOVER, N.H. – The Dartmouth men's hockey team fell behind early to St. Lawrence Saturday night, but quickly rebounded and came away with the 3-1 win in front of a loud Thompson Arena crowd.

Three different players found the back of the net as the Big Green (10-5-3, 7-3-1 ECAC Hockey) pushed its win streak to three games and moved up the conference standings. The Saints (3-19-3, 1-12-0 ECAC) are now winless in their last 15 games (0-13-2) with Saturday's result.

"A big weekend with four huge points for us," Koenig Family Head Coach Bob Gaudet '81 said afterward. "We knew after last night we couldn't have a letdown against a team that always comes into this building and plays us hard. We played hard all weekend and got the results we were looking for and are a better team today than we were a week ago because of it."

After St. Lawrence opened the scoring just 86 seconds into the game on Callum Cusinato's first of the season, the home team had to answer back and did so quickly with Cam Strong netting his second of the year at the 5:44 mark, knocking in a low-slot loose puck just under the bar.

Fellow senior Will Graber put his team in front with what would prove to be the game winner not even four minutes later. Graber corralled a clearing attempt at the blueline, skated into the low slot from the halfboards and went upstairs with a backhand to give the team in green a 2-1 lead.

Exactly halfway through the game, sophomore Drew O'Connor made it 3-1 as his point shot on the power play somehow found the back of the net, redirecting in off a defender's stick in front of the crease.

For O'Connor, it was his 11th goal of the season, a figure that tied for the most in ECAC Hockey at the time, but was passed later in the night by Yale's Curtis Hall and his 12th of the year.

Collin Rutherford, Quin Foreman and Matt Baker all had helpers.

Senior Adrian Clark bounced back from the early goal to make just 14 saves in the win. Dartmouth held the Saints to 15 shots on goal in the game, a season low for any opponent by nine. The home team held a 27-15 edge in shots on goal with neither team doing much in the third as the Saints had five of the six pucks on net.

The Big Green are now 7-1-2 at home in 2019-20, the second-best mark of any team in the league only to top-ranked Cornell, who is 5-0-1. Since returning from winter break, the Green and White are 6-1-1.

Dartmouth heads out on the road next weekend, taking on the No. 1 Big Red and Colgate. Both games are set for 7 p.m. puck drops.